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CarGo awarded Gold Glove for NL left fielders

CarGo awarded Gold Glove for NL left fielders

Take a look back at his stellar year in the field as Carlos Gonzalez is recognized for his outstanding defense with a 2012 Gold Glove award

By Thomas Harding
/
MLB.com |

DENVER -- The Rockies' Carlos Gonzalez made the most of a difficult season by making enough outstanding plays in left field to earn his second National League Rawlings Gold Glove Award, it was announced Tuesday night.

2012 Gold glove winners

POS

AL winner

NL winner

C

Matt Wieters, BAL

Yadier Molina, STL

1B

Mark Teixeira, NYY

Adam LaRoche, WAS

2B

Robinson Cano, NYY

Darwin Barney, CHC

SS

J.J. Hardy, BAL

Jimmy Rollins, PHI

3B

Adrian Beltre, TEX

Chase Headley, SD

LF

Alex Gordon, KC

Carlos Gonzalez, COL

CF

Adam Jones, BAL

Andrew McCutchen, PIT

RF

Josh Reddick, OAK

Jason Heyward, ATL

P

Jeremy Hellickson, TBJake Peavy, CWS

Mark Buehrle, MIA

Gonzalez, who won the award in 2010, was selected through voting by NL managers and coaches. The Brewers' Ryan Braun and the Braves' Martin Prado were the other finalists. Managers and coaches are not allowed to vote for their own players.

"I feel honored and blessed with this award," Gonzalez expressed on his Twitter page. "Having a great defense in the outfield [is] very important for me. I work hard to be a help for my team."

In 131 games defensively in 2012, Gonzalez, a first-time All-Star Game participant, impressed more with style and intimidation than numbers.

Gonzalez finished fifth among NL left fielders with seven assists, but he leads NL left fielders with 27 outfield assists since 2010, which ranks third-most among all NL outfielders. Gonzalez posted a .982 fielding percentage in 2012, and his .992 overall fielding percentage since 2010 is fifth among NL left fielders with a minimum of 200 games.

This is the second year that the outfield Gold Glove Awards were selected by position. Interestingly, the process might have cost Gonzalez last year, when he played a significant number of games at each outfield position.

In 2012, then-Rockies manager Jim Tracy decided to keep Gonzalez in left field, partly to reduce the possibility of a recurrence of the wrist injuries that reduced his effectiveness in 2010 and 2011. Gonzalez struggled early with fly balls that took him to the wall, but after about a month, he became a threat to take away hits with diving catches and intimidated baserunners.

Gonzalez earned the 12th Gold Glove in the Rockies' 20-season history. Among outfielders, his two awards are second on the club's list to the five earned by Larry Walker (1997-99, 2001-02).